Gazette - 072913

Monday July 29th 2013

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Wave of deadly car bombs hits Iraq

A wave of car bombs has killed at least 51 people in mostly Shia areas of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and in other cities around the country.

More than 200 people were wounded in the attacks, officials said.
More than 2,500 Iraqis have died in attacks since April, the UN says - with violence at its highest since 2008.
The spike comes amid heightened Shia-Sunni tensions. Sunnis say they are being marginalised by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's Shia-led government.

Syrian TV says government troops capture key neighborhood in Homs

Government troops captured a neighborhood Monday in the embattled city of Homs that has been a rebel stronghold since the beginning of the Syrian uprising, dealing another blow to beleaguered opposition forces in the center of the country, according to the state media.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group, however, denied that regime forces had seized all of the district of Khaldiyeh, saying there was still scattered fighting in southern areas of the neighborhood.
Syrian TV aired footage from the neighborhood, showing troops roaming deserted streets and waving flags in front of shell-scarred buildings. Two opposition activists in the area who could normally be contacted via Skype were offline Monday.

Middle East Peace Talks Begin In Washington Amid Deep Skepticism

JERUSALEM -- Israeli and Palestinian teams flew to Washington on Monday to end five years of diplomatic stalemate and prepare for a new round of Mideast peace talks, though optimism was in short supply after two decades of failed attempts to reach a deal.
The resumption of talks was made possible by a decision by Israel's Cabinet on Sunday to free 104 long-held Palestinian prisoners in four stages, linked to progress in talks. The release was part of an agreement brokered early this month by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to bring the sides back to the negotiating table.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been reluctant to negotiate with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, fearing the hard-line Israeli leader will reject what the Palestinians consider minimal territorial demands.
The Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in 1967, but have accepted the principle of limited land swaps to allow Israel to annex some of the dozens of settlements it has built on war-won lands.
Abbas had repeatedly said he will only go to talks if Israel either freezes settlement building or recognizes the 1967 lines as a starting point for drawing the border of a state of Palestine.
Palestinian officials reiterated Monday that they received US assurances that Washington considers the 1967 lines the basis for border talks.

Iran says it will take 315 subway cars from China in lieu of sanctions-blocked oil payments

 A senior Iranian official says the country has ordered 315 subway cars from China in place of payment for oil that can't be transferred due to sanctions.

Amir Jafarpour, who is deputy head of the Transportation and Fuel Management Committee, says officials were forced to order the coaches because billions of dollars of payments from crude oil exports to China have not been transferred to Iran because of sanctions.
Jafarpour is quoted by the conservative news website tasnimnews.com on Monday.
The U.S. and its allies have imposed oil and banking sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program. Iran has frequently turned to barter arrangements because of sanctions-related difficulties with money transfers.
SEE IRAN'S SUBWAY SYSTEM HERE

Explosions Target Courthouses In Benghazi

TRIPOLI, Libya — Two large explosions hit courthouses in the city of Benghazi late Sunday, leaving part of one of the buildings a pile of rubble, two security officials said.
An official in Benghazi said 10 people were wounded, two seriously, in the explosion outside one courthouse. Video posted by residents online showed several vehicles destroyed by that explosion. The video also showed residents standing in a crater in the ground outside the building.
Another courthouse in the eastern part of the city was also hit, said a security official in the capital, Tripoli.
The courthouse in the north of Benghazi was the site of the first protests against dictator Moammar Gadhafi in early 2011 that led to his ouster. It continues to be a hub for protests.
The explosion erupted just before a planned protest outside one of the buildings to mark the second anniversary of the death of Gen. Abdul Fattah Younis, a former Gadhafi security minister who defected from the regime to join the rebels fighting him. He was killed in July 2011 by his comrades while in custody after he was arrested on suspicion of treason.
Security officials said police are investigating if the explosions were the result of bombs. They spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak to media.
The city of Benghazi was the birthplace of the country's uprising against Gadhafi's rule and is also Libya's second largest city.

China starts receiving gas from Myanmar through pipeline
 
BEIJING: Energy-hungry China has started receiving natural gas from Myanmar through an 870km-long strategic cross-border pipeline co-invested by four countries, including India.

The multi-billion dollar pipeline, which was inaugurated in northern Myanmar's Mandalay yesterday, will ship natural gas and petroleum all the way from the coastal port in Myanmar to China's southwest Yunnan Province.

The gas pipeline, co-invested by six parties from four countries including India and South Korea, has a designed annual throughput of 12 billion cubic metres before off-loading in Myanmar.

A parallel oil pipeline is also part of the project. China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPN) is a major partner in both assets.

The designed annual capacity is 22 million tonnes for the oil pipeline and 12 billion cubic metres for the gas pipeline.

The cost of the pipeline was in billions, state-run Xinhua news agency reported, without mentioning the exact investment in the project.

It shortens the distance of transportation originally going through the Malacca Strait, a Chinese expert said.

China orders government debt audit

China has ordered a nationwide audit of all government debt, underlining fears that the recent slowdown in its economy may impact the financial sector.

Local governments in China borrowed heavily after the global financial crisis to try to sustain growth rates.
The last audit, published in 2011, showed they had debt of 10.7tn yuan ($1.7tn; £1.1tn) by the end of 2010.
Debt may threaten China's growth, and there are growing fears that local governments may not be able repay.
"In line with a request of the State Council, the National Audit Office (NAO) will organize auditing agencies across the country to carry out an audit of government debt," the national auditor said in a statement on its website.
The NAO said that it had halted all other projects to conduct the audit, but did not give any other details or a timeline for the audit.
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Seven killed in US drone strike in northwest Pakistan
 ISLAMABAD: Seven suspected militants were killed and three others wounded when a US drone fired two missiles at a compound in Pakistan's northwestern tribal region, triggering strong condemnation from Islamabad.

The attack took place just before sunset yesterday in a village in Shawal area, some 50 kilometres west of Miranshah, the main town of restive North Waziristan, a stronghold of Taliban militants along the Afghan border.

Seven people were killed in the drone strike, officials said.

Pakistan today strongly condemned the attack, describing it as violation of its "sovereignty".

"These unilateral strikes are a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Pakistan has repeatedly emphasized the importance of bringing an immediate end to drone strikes," foreign office spokesman Aizaz Chaudhry said in a statement.

"Such strikes also set dangerous precedents in the inter-state relations," the spokesman said.

Mexico navy admiral killed in ambush

Gunmen have killed one of Mexico's highest ranking navy officials in the western state of Michoacan, where the military is trying to regain control of areas dominated by warring drug gangs.

Vice Adm Carlos Salazar was ambushed on an unpaved road near the town of Churintzio.
His car had been diverted from the main road by protesters believed to have been hired by the gunmen.
The attack comes days after two police officers were killed in another ambush.
Deadly diversion Adm Salazar was travelling on a motorway connecting Michoacan's capital, Morelia, with the state of Jalisco, where he was serving as commander of a naval base in Puerto Vallarta.

Laughing thugs poured acid over mother as she walked her six-year-old twins home from school 

A gang who laughed as they doused a woman in acid while she walked her six-year-old twins home from school have been jailed for a total of 44 years.
The attackers was heard laughing as the noxious liquid was sprayed at the screaming mother in front of her two boys outside Upton Cross Primary School in Upton Park, east London.
Speaking after the attack the woman, who suffered horrendous burns to her face and body, said: 'I saw a man approach me who was carrying something in a bottle.
'He threw it over me and after a few seconds it started burning. I was crying: "Please help me! Please help me!"'
It is thought Yannick Ntesa, 25, sprayed the acid and made his getaway in a red BMW with
Abdul Motin, 28, and 31-year-old Ahad Miah.
The 44-year-old mother, from Plaistow, fled to a neighbour's home where water was poured over her burning clothes.
Some of the acid burnt her son's satchel while another mother also suffered minor injuries in the attack on March 24, 2011.
The victim was rushed to the Royal London Hospital and later transferred to a specialist burns unit in Chelmsford, Essex.
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Four in five in US face near-poverty, no work

Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.
Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor, and the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend.
The findings come as President Obama tries to renew his administration's emphasis on the economy, saying in recent speeches that his highest priority is to "rebuild ladders of opportunity" and reverse income inequality.
As nonwhites approach a numerical majority in the U.S., one question is how public programs to lift the disadvantaged should be best focused -- on the affirmative action that historically has tried to eliminate the racial barriers seen as the major impediment to economic equality, or simply on improving socioeconomic status for all, regardless of race.

Obama's Keystone comments give opponents reason for hope

For those trying to decipher which way President Obama is leaning on whether to grant the Keystone XL pipeline a presidential permit, the comments he made in an interview with The New York Times published this weekend suggest he accepts much of the criticism opponents have lodged against the project.
In the interview, which was posted online Saturday night, Obama questioned the project’s economic benefits, saying “there is no evidence” to the Republican argument that “this would be a big jobs generator.”
“And my hope would be that any reporter who is looking at the facts would take the time to confirm that the most realistic estimates are this might create maybe 2,000 jobs during the construction of the pipeline — which might take a year or two — and then after that we’re talking about somewhere between 50 and 100 [chuckles] jobs in a economy of 150 million working people,” Obama added.
He also suggested that the pipeline would not lower gas prices in the U.S., and could actually increase them in the Midwest, an argument buttressed by recent fluctuations in the crude oil market.

White House doubles down on vow Obama won't agree to more spending cuts

The Obama administration dug in Sunday on its vow to reject proposed spending cuts by congressional Republicans in upcoming budget talks but declined to say whether the president would veto their proposals or allow a government shutdown.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told “Fox News Sunday” that President Obama will neither sign government funding bills that slash domestic spending nor negotiate with Republicans over spending cuts to raise the federal debt limit.

However, he would not say whether the president would veto proposals and put the responsibility on Capitol Hill.

“Congress has to do its work," Lew said.

He also repeated what the administration has said in the weeks ahead of talks on short-term funding for federal agencies before a Sept. 30 deadline -- that Capitol Hill lawmakers must replace so-called sequester cuts with less drastic ones.

“Congress should find a way out of sequester,” Lew said.

The across-the-board cuts to Defense Department and domestic spending began in March, after Washington failed to agree on a more even approach.

He also said the president was not going to accept a budget in which domestic spending is further cut to soften the blow to Defense spending.

“That's unacceptable," Lew, who appeared on three Sunday shows to re-enforce the president’s positions, told NBC's "Meet the Press." "He won't sign that." 

Momentum Builds Against N.S.A. Surveillance

WASHINGTON — The movement to crack down on government surveillance started with an odd couple from Michigan, Representatives Justin Amash, a young libertarian Republican known even to his friends as “chief wing nut,” and John Conyers Jr., an elder of the liberal left in his 25th House term.

But what began on the political fringes only a week ago has built a momentum that even critics say may be unstoppable, drawing support from Republican and Democratic leaders, attracting moderates in both parties and pulling in some of the most respected voices on national security in the House.

The rapidly shifting politics were reflected clearly in the House on Wednesday, when a plan to defund the National Security Agency’s telephone data collection program fell just seven votes short of passage. Now, after initially signaling that they were comfortable with the scope of the N.S.A.’s collection of Americans’ phone and Internet activities, but not their content, revealed last month by Edward J. Snowden, lawmakers are showing an increasing willingness to use legislation to curb those actions.

Bill and Hillary Clinton are 'livid' at comparisons to Weiner’s sexcapades and Huma’s forgiveness

Bill and Hillary Clinton are angry with efforts by mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner and his campaign to compare his Internet sexcapades — and his wife Huma Abedin’s incredible forgiveness — to the Clintons’ notorious White House saga, The Post has learned.
“The Clintons are upset with the comparisons that the Weiners seem to be encouraging — that Huma is ‘standing by her man’ the way Hillary did with Bill, which is not what she in fact did,’’ said a top state Democrat.
Weiner and his campaign aides have explicitly referred to the Clintons as they privately seek to convince skeptical Democrats that voters can back Weiner despite his online sexual antics — just as they supported then-President Bill Clinton in the face of repeated allegations of marital betrayals.
“The Clintons are pissed off that Weiner’s campaign is saying that Huma is just like Hillary,’’ said the source. “How dare they compare Huma with Hillary? Hillary was the first lady. Hillary was a senator. She was secretary of state.”
A longtime Hillary aide and Clinton friend, Abedin’s surprisingly unequivocal support of her husband after his bombshell admission Tuesday that he engaged in salacious online sexting well after he resigned in disgrace from Congress in 2011 left the Clintons stunned, continued the source.
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